Technology News

IBM and its joint development partners — AMD, Freescale, STMicroelectronics, Toshiba and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) — today announced the first working static random access memory (SRAM) for the 22 nanometer (nm) technology node, the world’s first reported working cell built at its 300mm research facility in Albany, NY.

SRAM chips are precursors to more complex devices such as microprocessors. The SRAM cell utilizes a conventional six-transistor design and has an area of 0.1um2, breaking the previous SRAM scaling barriers.

Researchers achieved this breakthrough at CNSE of the University at Albany, State University of New York. CNSE’s Albany NanoTech is the world’s most advanced university based nanoelectronics research complex. IBM and its partners do much of their leading-edge semiconductor research at CNSE.

A nanometer is one one-billionth of a meter or about 80,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

“We are working at the ultimate edge of what is possible — progressing toward advanced, next-generation semiconductor technologies,” said Dr. T.C. Chen, vice president of Science and Technology, IBM Research. “This new development is a critical achievement in the pursuit to continually drive miniaturization in microelectronics.”

22 nm is two generations away in chip manufacturing. The next generation is 32 nm — where IBM and its partners are in development with their leading 32 nm high-K metal gate technology that no other company or consortium can match.

Traditionally, an SRAM chip is made more dense by shrinking its basic building block, often referred to as a cell. IBM-alliance researchers optimized the SRAM cell design and circuit layout to improve stability and developed several novel fabrication processes in order to make the new SRAM cell possible. The researchers utilized high-NA immersion lithography to print the aggressive pattern dimensions and densities and fabricated the parts in its a state-of-the-art 300mm semiconductor research environment.

SRAM cell size is a key technology metric in the semiconductor industry, and this work demonstrates IBM and its partners’ continued leadership in cutting-edge process technology.

Key enablers of the SRAM cell include band edge high-K metal gate stacks, transistors with less than 25 nm gate lengths, thin spacers, novel co-implants, advanced activation techniques, extremely thin silicide, and damascene copper contacts.

Additional details of this achievement will be presented at the IEEE International Electron Devices (IEDM) annual technical meeting to be held in San Francisco, CA, December 15-17, 2008.

IBM bosses have sent a warning to Linux Desktop Developers; they have told the open source community to make Linux like a desktop OS for consumers and businesses. What they mean by this is “Not to Copy Windows.”

Bob Sutor, Vice President of open source and standards at IBM was at LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco. He told the attendees there that the open source community has to make Linux as popular as Operating Systems used on desktops for both consumer and business users.

In the conference Sutor said “Stop copying 2001 Windows. That’s not where the usability action is.”

Yesterday we reported that IBM was joining forces with three major Linux distributors Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell and Red Hat, to come up with a Microsoft Free PC by 2009.

All four companies have agreed to provide hardware partners with the software needed to build these desktops. IBM carry a lot of weight when it comes to the Linux community, this is because they put a huge amount of investment into the program.
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IBM have said that they want Windows free computing, this is something that they are working on with three major Linux distributors, Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell and Red Hat.

They aim to achieve a Vole-free personal computing world by 2009 however; this is a tall order. All four of these companies are in collaboration with each other and are working on the development of a PC which will come pre-loaded with Linux, IBM’s Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS), Lotus Notes, Symphony and Sametime.

Consumers as well as independent software vendors will then be encouraged to develop applications that will run on this new PC. This will be done via Lotus Expeditor; this is a software framework which is based on the open source Eclipse programming model.

IBM Lotus Software vice president, Kevin Cavanaugh has said “The slow adoption of Vista among businesses, coupled with the proven success of a new type of Microsoft-free PC in every region, provides an extraordinary window of opportunity for Linux.”

It seems that more and more PC customers are asking for a computer that does not have any Microsoft software in it. It looks as though IBM has listened to them; let us hope that this collaboration works and all four companies can come up with something that consumers have been waiting for.

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To help people remember key facts, today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) unveiled a software technology created in its Research Labs that uses the images, sounds, and text recorded on everyday mobile devices to help people recall names, faces, conversations and other important information.

The technology, nicknamed “Pensieve” by the IBM team, uses associative recall to make connections between pieces of related data acquired by a person. The advantage of the new technology is its ability to understand the context in which data is captured, then connect various data, and then use this knowledge to help bring the correct information to a person when it is needed.

“This is like having a personal assistant for your memory,” said Dr. Yaakov Navon, the lead researcher and image processing expert from IBM’s Haifa Research Lab. “Our daily routines are overflowing with situations where we gain new information through meetings, advertisements, conferences, events, surfing the web, or even window shopping. Instead of going home and using a general web search to find that information, Pensieve helps the brain recall those everyday things you might normally forget.”

Today’s mobile devices have an endless number of functions that can record data in real time. IBM’s new software blends techniques from image processing, GPS information, smart clustering, optical character recognition, speech recognition, and information retrieval to index and tag the information.

Researchers at IBM’s Haifa Research Lab in Israel are pairing advanced mobile technologies with memory cues to develop a system that can analyze acquired data, create hooks to related experiences, and use them to populate a person’s information management applications. Once the address books and calendars are updated, the technology enables memory recall triggered by time, location or the introduction of related information.

For example, if you meet someone at a conference and use your phone to take a picture of him or her and another picture of that person’s business card, the new technology will associate the two pieces of data because they were taken at the same time and location. It then creates a virtual briefcase of data that includes the person’s image, the name of the conference where you met, the date and time, and any other relevant data.

The knowledge base is unique in its ability to integrate contextual information with image, time, and location data. Prior to a future meeting with the same person, you can be prompted by your calendar to review your notes about that person, along with other facts you may have recorded or items the system associated for you.

This year, for the first time ever, more people in the world will have a mobile phone than a land-line. Mobile phones already double as a music player, video player, game device, and calendar. IBM recently launched a new initiative to bring even more features and functions to the mobile phone.

Although using mobile phones to take photographs and record sound or video bites is common practice, much of this data tends to get stored away on the device with little information attached to it, rendering it of little value for future use.

Many people encounter situations where you have been introduced to someone but you can’t quite recall how you know them. By simply typing the person’s name into Pensieve, you can recall when and where you met them, and any related information garnered at that time. You could even browse forwards or backwards in time to find out what events transpired before or after the initial meeting.

Another use of this technology is in reconstructing and sharing an experience or memory. If enough media-rich data was collected about a particular event, it can be used to build a more complex visual associative representation of the experience.

“This is where the real power of collaboration kicks in,” said Eran Belinsky, research team leader and a specialist in collaboration. “You can recall the name of the person you met right before you entered a meeting by traversing a timeline of your experiences, or share a business trip with colleagues by creating a mashup that shows a map with an animation of your trail and the pictures you took in every location.”

This technology builds on IBM Research’s expertise in image processing, speech recognition, information discovery and retrieval, collaboration, and much more.

For more information about IBM, please visit: IBM

IBM and ILOG today announced they have signed an agreement regarding a proposed acquisition by IBM of ILOG to be implemented by way of concurrent cash public tender offers in both France and the United States. Through this proposed transaction, IBM will combine its business process management (BPM), business optimization, and service oriented architecture (SOA) technologies with ILOG’s Business Rules Management Systems software. This will enable IBM to help clients deliver critical business information in real-time, allowing them to make better business decisions faster.

The cash tender offer will be at a price of €10 per ordinary share and the U.S. dollar equivalent per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) based on the Euro/U.S. dollar exchange rate as of the settlement of the tender offers, amounting to an aggregate purchase price of approximately €215 million or approximately $US340 million on a fully diluted basis. This price represents a premium of approximately 56 percent compared to ILOG’s one month average of closing share prices prior to July 28, 2008, and a 37 percent premium to the closing price of Friday, July 25.

ILOG’s board of directors has approved the transaction between the two companies and, subject to the receipt of a satisfactory fairness opinion regarding the financial terms of the offer, is expected to give a final recommendation prior to September 15, following which the offer should be filed with the French stock exchange authority (AMF).

IBM has received commitments from certain shareholders to tender their shares to the contemplated offer, which represent approximately 10 percent of ILOG’s issued share capital.

The public tender offers will be conditional upon U.S. and EU antitrust clearances and a 66.67 percent share capital and voting rights minimum tender acceptance condition (on a fully diluted basis). The offer in France will only be opened for acceptances once the AMF and the French Ministry of Economy have granted their respective clearances.

The full text of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two companies will be filed with the SEC today as an exhibit to ILOG’s Report of Foreign Private Issuer on Form 6-K. A summary in French of the MOU can be found on ILOG’s website (http://www.ilog.com).

When completed, the acquisition of ILOG will strengthen IBM’s BPM and SOA position by providing customers a full set of rule management tools for complete information and application lifecycle management across a comprehensive platform including IBM’s leading WebSphere application development and management platform.

BPM allows companies to model, automate, monitor, and redesign business processes, such as opening a bank account, documenting a medical record, or customizing an insurance policy. It enables companies to improve customers’ service and increase efficiency, automation and accuracy. Using BPM, companies can examine tasks within an organization – particularly those done manually or involving significant document processing – and apply BPM to automate or streamline them. Such processes are becoming increasingly critical as business operations become more complex and information volumes grow at phenomenal rates. Building on IBM’s existing capabilities, ILOG will help customers manage change and complexity in their business processes by providing powerful, yet easy-to-use business tools.

For example, a business rule might be applied to elevate a premier customer to the front of a phone queue as part of a customer service process. ILOG’s Business Rule Management System provides users with tools that allow greater control over the criteria that determine how and when to route those premier customers. As such, businesses can accelerate the process of initiating policy changes that may be driven by market trends or competitive activity to ensure customer satisfaction is maintained.

ILOG technology has the potential to add significant capability across IBM’s entire software platform and bolster its existing rules management offerings. This includes improved rules and business optimization capabilities for Information Management offerings, better visualization for Lotus products, enhanced optimization within Tivoli solutions, and efficient supply chain management assets for planning and scheduling.

ILOG offers tools and technologies for business managers, analysts, architects and developers to use as they analyze, plan, track and improve business processes. Today, hundreds of large enterprises use ILOG technologies to automate the allocation of scarce resources and to build smart interfaces into their business processes. Additionally, scientists and mathematicians from hundreds of universities use ILOG products for advanced research, design, and analysis.

“Companies across all industries are looking for technologies to help them manage their processes with more flexibility so they can keep up with changing business conditions,” said Tom Rosamilia, general manager, IBM WebSphere. “ILOG’s software allows businesses to more effectively manage and automate the decision making process, giving companies an opportunity to react with incredible speed and accuracy. IBM has partnered with ILOG for over a decade, and by adding ILOG’s capabilities to IBM’s software portfolio, this is a great combination to provide value to our clients.”

Beyond end-user customers, ILOG has more than 500 original equipment manufacturer, solution integrator, and independent software vendor partners today. IBM also has an extensive partner community which will benefit from access to the ILOG technologies and extend ILOG’s reach. In addition to a successful network of more than 30 specialized partners and 850 personnel, ILOG brings extensive skills through a wide base of local and regional experts.

“We are very excited about this opportunity to join a world leader such as IBM, a long valued partner with shared core values. This combination will allow us to dramatically extend our market reach and realize the full potential of all of our technologies while protecting investments of ILOG’s customers now and into the future,” said Pierre Haren, ILOG Chairman & CEO.

Read other IBM news.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) announced today a first-of-a-kind research project to help doctors detect subtle changes in the condition of critically ill premature babies.

The project will see a group of internationally recognized researchers, led by Dr. Carolyn McGregor, a UOIT associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Health Informatics, use advanced stream computing software developed by IBM Research to work toward greatly enhancing the decision-making capabilities of doctors. The software ingests a constant stream of biomedical data, such as heart rate and respiration, along with environmental data gathered from advanced sensors and more traditional monitoring equipment on and around the babies.

The researchers will also use the software to apply findings from Dr. McGregor’s body of research to help make “sense” of the data and, in near-real-time, feed back the resulting analysis to health-care professionals so they can predict potential changes in an infant’s condition with greater accuracy and intervene more quickly.

Physicians in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and two other international hospitals are participating in the study.

Monitoring “preemies” as a patient group is especially important as certain life-threatening conditions such as infection can be detected up to 24 hours in advance by observing changes in physiological data streams.

The type of information that will come out of the research project is not available today. Currently, physicians monitoring preemies rely on a paper-based process that involves manually looking at the readings from various monitors and getting feedback from the nurses providing care.

“This research has the potential to reatly impact neonatal care through reduced mortality and morbidity rates and overall health-care costs,” said Dr. McGregor. “By merging our research and technology, we are able to collect more detailed patient data in a systematic manner, do online health analysis and decision support, and get advanced early warning of emerging patterns that could predict a medical event.”

When fully developed, IBM’s software will be capable of processing the 512 readings per second generated by some of these medical devices, and UOIT researchers will further test and develop its ability to analyze these vast quantities of data in real time.

Initially researchers will use NICU medical devices in UOIT’s state-of-the-art Health Informatics Laboratory to test IBM’s software using simulated patient mirroring data. Then the software will be tested using de-identified actual patient data. The de-identified data is recorded in a way that enables researchers to alter some variables, play it back and run simulations for further study.

IBM awarded Dr. McGregor access to the prototype software patented by researchers at its T.J. Watson research facility in New York under its First-of-a-Kind program, which is designed to accelerate the delivery of innovative technologies to the market and link IBM’s research work to real world problems.

“Right now, there is an enormous amount of critical data produced by machines monitoring patients,” said Don Aldridge, business executive for IBM research and life science. “That creates a challenge. The ability to quickly analyze that data and make informed decisions will help improve the overall quality of health care.”

View more news about IBM.

Its one thing having Virtual Worlds where you can do almost anything but having these worlds connect just takes on all new meaning to what’s possible.

The creators of IBM, Linden Lab and Second Life have made it possible to teleport avatars from an Opensim virtual world server and Second Life’s Preview Grid; this will have a massive impact on the future of virtual worlds.

Imagine being able to visit one virtual world and then seamlessly move to another virtual world of your choice, what would that mean for you and also businesses?

We are waiting to hear when the interoperability protocol will be available but this will move virtual worlds into another stage of evolution, one that will improve both user experience and business potential.

Developers will have a field day with this new technology and what they can create with it thanks to plans for Linden Lab to make Second Life extensions open source and IBM giving extensions to the Opensim community.

What will the ability to move between Virtual Worlds mean to you?

Source: Read

Written by Daniel for Product Reviews
In Sections: Computers
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IBM today announced first-of-a-kind self-checkout technology that allows consumers to shop for and check out purchases practically anywhere in a store. This new self checkout solution raises the bar for consumer self service options, giving retailers built-in flexibility, improved customer service and a new tool for building customer advocacy for their brands.
IBM also announced a new release of software to help speed the self checkout process, a new state-of-the-art entry-level kiosk, and an extension of its global self service alliance program to reach new markets and industries.

Designed for small businesses and large enterprise departments, the IBM AnyPlace Checkout system is the next major step in self checkout innovation. It combines the ultra-compact footprint of the market-leading IBM AnyPlace Kiosk with the robust capabilities of IBM self checkout software, giving clients the best of both worlds.

According to a recent customer purchasing survey*, 10 percent of shoppers who left a store without making a purchase cited the wait to check out as a factor in their decision not to buy. More importantly, when forced to wait in line for more than four minutes, customer satisfaction levels fall below 80 percent.

Small to midsized retailers can now offer a fast, convenient checkout system for small orders, including those in specialty, drug and convenience store environments. Large retail operations can complement front-end self checkout with stand-alone placement of these units within grocery areas such as deli, floral or prepared foods, as well as departments of large stores and hospitality retailers.

“Today’s market environment is tough and competitive, and there is huge pressure on retailers to transform and innovate, all driven by a need to change the shopping experience for consumers,” said Steve Ladwig, General Manager, Retail Store Solutions, IBM System & Technology Group. “The IBM AnyPlace Checkout allows us to help our clients serve their customers in totally new ways, answering consumer demand for easy-to-use self service in more places than ever before.”

According to an IHL Group 2007 market study on self checkout**, 98 percent of respondents have used self checkout, almost 50 percent have used it more than five times in the previous years, and 72 percent have readily accepted the technology in the marketplace. This study also reported that for 2008, consumers will spend more than US $230.7 billion on self checkout transactions at retail stores, up 28 percent over 2007.

“Self checkout not only continues to gain widespread acceptance with consumers, but we are also seeing that self-service solutions are paying off for retailers,” said Greg Buzek, President, IHL Consulting Group. “Our research shows that retailers that have embraced self-service technologies are redeploying labor to key profit areas, improving customer service with more lanes and improving profitability by increasing the number of profitable transactions.”

The IBM AnyPlace Checkout system expands the proven and successful IBM Self-Checkout family by extending the capability of when and where retailers can offer self-service transactions. This first-of-its-kind unit is the second major offering in an aggressive IBM consumer services campaign, and joins a growing portfolio of IBM and Business Partner self service offerings that span multiple industries, including retail, hospitality, travel and transportation.

IBM also announced today a new release of IBM Checkout Environment for Consumer-Service (CHEC), self checkout software that delivers a robust environment through a rich user experience, simple manageability and reliable Point-of-Sale integration. The modular software platform also allows for IBM Business Partners to tailor to a retailer’s specific needs.

A completely new self checkout design, the IBM AnyPlace Checkout system offers retailers new features and enhanced flexibility, making it easy for consumers to scan and pay for their items quickly. This new self-checkout unit offers a variety of hardware and software enhancements that include:

• Small Footprint: Designed with the IBM AnyPlace Kiosk at its core, this unit offers one of the smallest self-checkout footprints available, making it attractive for grocers and other businesses that have limited floor space.

• Customized Enclosures: Offers flexibility to utilize a variety of enclosures including customized designs by IBM Global Technology Services or third party vendors that match a retailer’s “look and feel.”

• Cashless: These units offer credit/debit payment options only, which speeds transactions by eliminating the time it takes to accept and dispense bills and coins, as well as lowers the chance of shoppers forgetting their change.

• Manageability: A component of IBM Store Integration Framework, the Remote Management Agent (RMA) enables retailers to achieve end-to-end store systems management of retail devices and applications along side traditional IT deployment. Across the enterprise, retailers can configure and monitor the system remotely, distribute software, track assets and determine and diagnose problems.

New Entry-Level IBM AnyPlace Kiosk
IBM also introduced an entry-level AnyPlace Kiosk that can be used for a variety of kiosk applications or as a compact point-of-sale. This newest AnyPlace Kiosk 15” model allows small independent businesses to use advanced kiosk technology previously only available to large enterprises at a price they can afford. Additionally, the kiosk can be used by larger businesses for a variety of kiosk applications including product locators, price checkers and more. This entry-level kiosk unit comes with an energy-efficient processor and built-in power management capabilities that allow clients to reduce power consumption and run essential applications quickly and reliably. It is geared toward specialty, food service, gas and convenience retail businesses and is also tailored for use across multiple industries such as travel and transportation, hospitality and healthcare.

IBM Business Partner Alliance Program Momentum
IBM also announced that approximately 100 Business Partners have joined its Self Service Alliance Program. Since its introduction last September in conjunction with the IBM Consumer Services Initiative, Business Partners representing 11 industries, 18 solution areas and 17 countries have signed up to help develop, market and distribute IBM self-service solutions worldwide, helping extend IBM leadership in self service across multiple industries. In just eight months, the IBM Self-Service Alliance program has grown into one of the largest business partner ecosystem focused on self-service for multiple industries, including pharmacy, banking, government and manufacturing. The program represents nine new countries, including Israel, Malaysia, Romania and Guatemala.

Pricing and Availability
The IBM AnyPlace Checkout will be available May 23 and is approximately half the price of a traditional self checkout system.

Written by Daniel for Product Reviews
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Retalix announced today a worldwide partnership with IBM to deliver combined software, hardware and services solutions to petroleum and convenience store retailers of all sizes. The partnership was announced at NACStech, the National Association of Conveninece Stores’ technology show, held in Dallas.

Retalix and IBM will jointly market and implement technology solutions based on Retalix software applications, which are designed to support the specific business needs of petroleum and convenience retailers from the fuel pump and the point-of-sale (POS) to the headquarters. The combination of IBM hardware and Retalix software is already a solution of choice for several leading petroleum and convenience retailers.

“Whether retailers are operating hundreds of sites or just a few stations, they can benefit from the combination of IBM point-of-sale hardware and services with Retalix’s industry-tailored software solutions,” said Steve Ladwig, General Manager, IBM Retail Store Solutions. “Retailers using both IBM and Retalix solutions can enhance customer service levels, lower overall operating costs, and reward loyal customers by delivering targeted promotions either in the store or at the pump.”

Retalix offers a broad line of software applications designed for petroleum and convenience store retailers, including Retalix StorePoint POS and store backoffice; Retalix Fuel, Retalix Commercial Fuel, Retalix HQ-Convenience for central price management; Retalix DemandAnalytX for optimization of store ordering and Retalix Loyalty and Promotions.

“Retalix and IBM share a rich track record of addressing the needs of petroleum and conveneince retailers, which made it natural to expand our cooperation into a joint worldwide go-to-market strategy,” said Barry Shaked, president and CEO of Retalix. “The expansion of our existing technology partnership and reseller agreements underscores the increased value Retalix and IBM bring to customers by delivering tailored software solutions on IBM hardware with support from IBM Global Services and other partners around the world.”

Recently, IBM announced that it will work with StoreNext Retail Technologies LLC, a subsidiary of Retalix, to market pre-packaged retail solutions powered by IBM point-of-sale systems for independent retailers and regional chains in both the grocery and convenience retail segments. Retalix and StoreNext software applications on powerful IBM POS units will give retailers greater flexibility and choice to meet their IT requirements.

For information on IBM Retail, please visit ibm.com/retail

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